Since human beings started cleaning teeth, or toothbrushing, with a toothbrush, a number of theories on proper toothbrushing habits have been continuously suggested and publicized by many persons, such as toothbrush manufacturers, dentists, etc.
Electric toothbrushes have been developed for the disabled, and are now widely used for convenience in busy lifestyles. An electric toothbrush vibrates by employing a motor, or by using sonic or ultrasonic waves such that plaque is removed in response to the vibration. Processes of removing the plaque are slightly different according to the number of vibrations per minute.
There is an opinion that the plaque is efficiently removed if the electric toothbrush vibrates more than 20,000 times per minute. Furthermore, there is an opinion that, if the electric toothbrush vibrates more than 30,000 times per minute, the plaque is more efficiently removed, but harmful side effects may occur. If the electric toothbrush vibrates at a high frequency (i.e., more than 20,000 times per minute), then toothbrush bristles in contact with a tooth may also remove the plaque on the opposite side of the tooth due to the vibration. That is, toothbrush manufacturers argue that, once the toothbrush bristles are in contact with the front side of the tooth, the plaque at the reverse side of the tooth can be removed.
Such an electric toothbrush may be relatively less affected by toothbrushing patterns, or the toothbrushing habits, of a user. The electric toothbrush, however, has a problem in that the electric toothbrush may not provide the user with feedback on whether the user has positioned the toothbrush bristles evenly on all portions of the teeth (so that the teeth are uniformly brushed). An intensity control mode of the electric toothbrush is implemented for the user to control the vibration intensity. The electric toothbrush having the intensity control mode, however, has another problem in that toothbrushing must be stopped to adjust the vibration intensity when the vibration intensity is controlled according to each portion of the teeth. If the user does not adjust the vibration intensity because the user finds that controlling the vibration intensity is troublesome, various gum diseases may occur.
In order to mitigate these problems, electric toothbrushes having various embedded functionalities have been suggested such that motivation is provided for the user to maintain the toothbrushing during a recommended time interval, which may be set to about 2 to 3 minutes.
As a related art relating to such electric toothbrushes, the Oral-B Triumph electric toothbrush released in 2006 displays an actual toothbrushing time in units of seconds on a liquid crystal display (LCD) display window embedded in the body unit of the electric toothbrush. Once the power of the electric toothbrush is turned on, the toothbrushing time is counted from the turn-on time, and the toothbrushing time is displayed on the display window. The electric toothbrush vibrates for a short time four times every 30 seconds for the user to brush four regions of the teeth during the whole recommended toothbrushing time of 2 minutes, and displays a completion mark on the display window after about 2 minutes has elapsed from the turn-on time. Functions of the electric toothbrush are disclosed such that the user can select a cleaning mode, a soft-cleaning mode, a massage mode or a whitening mode by controlling the number of vibrations per minute or the vibration method.
The Sonicare Elite e9000 series released by Philips includes electric toothbrushes of which vibrations are induced by sonic waves. The electric toothbrushes gradually increase the vibration intensity for the user, even if the user has not experienced brushing teeth with the electric toothbrush, so that the user can adapt to the intensity or speed of the vibration by automatically controlling the vibration intensity during the first 14 times. A function for manually controlling the speed is also disclosed such that the speed is controlled by a two-speed control function for a user having sensitive gums.
The RC-300UJ Ultima Ultrasonic Toothbrush released by Toray Ireeve Corp. vibrates 16,000 times per second using ultrasonic waves (of 1.6 MHz) transmitted from a portion of the toothbrush bristles.
The conventional art described above cannot inform the user as to which portion has been brushed since the conventional toothbrushes cannot identify locations of the toothbrushes. Accordingly, since the conventional toothbrushes cannot guide the user to properly clean each portion of the teeth, the conventional toothbrushes have problems in that motivation may not be provided for the user to maintain brushing of the teeth for the recommended toothbrushing time. Moreover, motivation may not be provided for the user to uniformly brush all portions of the teeth, and a habit correction may not be easily accomplished even though parents or another person tries to monitor the toothbrushing habits of the user.
There is a tendency for the user to weakly brush a labial side and both buccal sides of the teeth, and relatively strongly brush an occlusal side of the teeth. However, since products currently released cannot recognize the location of a toothbrush, or since the products cannot automatically control the vibration speed according to brushed portions of the teeth, the products have problems in that the user has to adjust the vibration intensity during the toothbrushing according to the location of the toothbrush. Accordingly, the conventional toothbrushes have a problem in that periodontitis or gingivitis may occur.